


Daisy Chains and Dashing Suitors

by RocknVaughn



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Daisy Chaining, F/M, Merlin Daisy Chain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-20
Updated: 2013-06-20
Packaged: 2017-12-15 14:48:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/850784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RocknVaughn/pseuds/RocknVaughn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gwen thought that when Gwaine had been banished from Camelot by King Uther, she'd never see the dashing rogue again. </p><p>She was wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Daisy Chains and Dashing Suitors

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Merlin Daisy Chain. My first time writing either of these people as main characters. I hope I do them justice. Thanks for reading!

 

 

<><><>

 

Gwen recognized his footsteps before she even turned around. How was it that she'd already attuned herself to the sound of his gait even though he'd only been in Camelot a week?

"Gwaine!" she exclaimed with a wide smile, genuinely happy to see him. Then she frowned, seeing a travelling pack slung over one shoulder. "Are you going somewhere?"

Gwaine tossed his hair out of his eyes with a flick of his head and levelled his cheeky grin on her. "I have until sundown before Uther releases the hounds," he joked, lifting one shoulder, feigning an unconcerned shrug.

"What?" Gwen gasped, laying a placating hand upon his forearm. "How can that be? You saved Prince Arthur's life...twice!"

"A king cannot go back on his own edict no matter _how_ little sense it makes. They're taught that from birth, I think....how to be nonsensical."

Gwen propped her hands on her hips indignantly. "Didn't Prince Arthur argue in your favour?"

"Oh, he did," Gwaine reassured her. "He most certainly did...which is probably why I'm not locked up in a dungeon waiting to have my head removed from my shoulders..."

The gentle, teasing smile that graced Gwaine's lips made him appear much more soft and vulnerable than he normally did, and Gwen suddenly understood something vital about the brashly confident man in front of her: there was much more going on underneath the surface than Gwaine cared to admit.

Suddenly, she understood why Merlin had taken to Gwaine so quickly.

The shadows behind his eyes and the worry creases between his eyebrows spoke volumes and gave the lie to the swordsman's happy-go-lucky exterior. Regardless of his carefree facade, there was no question that he'd had a hard life. This, more than any flirty pick up line he'd used, made Gwen's heart ache for him.

"Where will you go?" she asked earnestly as their eyes caught and held.

"Ah, wherever the wind takes me, I suspect..." was Gwaine's flippant reply. At Gwen's concerned frown, he amended, "I'll be all right; I've been on my own for a long time."

Gwaine pulled his other arm from around his back and proffered the snow-white daisy to her. "Milady..." he said, and bowed with a flourish. "I hope you will deign to accept my offering this time."

Gwen chuckled and accepted the flower. "Just this once..." she agreed.

"Come on...a pretty lady like yourself should be receiving flowers all the time. Do you truly not have men courting you left, right and center?"

Gwen could feel the blush heating her cheeks as she studied the toes of her slippers. "No," she admitted, her voice nearly a whisper in its complete embarrassment.

"Ah, now...that won't do. That won't do at all..." Gwaine gathered Gwen into his arms gently and gave her a surprisingly chaste hug.

As he released her, he said cryptically, "Perhaps I'll see you around, then," and then turned to walk away.

Gwen puzzled for a long time over what Gwaine could have possibly meant by that. After all, he was banned from Camelot under penalty of death. It wasn't as if she would ever have the opportunity to see the man again. He would surely disappear from her life just as suddenly and completely as Lancelot had.

Or so she'd thought.

 

 

<><><>

It was a gorgeous late spring day and there was not a cloud to be found in the Camelot sky. Gwen had finished her chores for the Lady Morgana early and decided that her Lady could use some new wildflowers to pretty up her chambers. So, armed with her gathering basket, she set out to her favorite spot outside of the city.

A half hour later, Gwen spread out her skirts in the middle of an open field, its contents a riotous explosion of color. She breathed in the delightful scents and reached out to pick her first bloom...but before she could, the stem of a perfect white daisy draped itself over her neck.

"Perhaps this one might do for a woman so beautiful?" a familiar voice drawled from behind her.

A shiver of excitement tingled down Gwen's spine as she turned toward the sound. "Gwaine!" she exclaimed loudly before clapping a hand over her mouth.

Gwaine chuckled at her horrified expression and pulled Gwen's hand back down to cradle it in his. "Surely I'm not _that_ scary," he joked.

"Oh no!" Gwen blushed scarlet. "Not at all. I was just surprised to see you." She scooted herself around so she was more fully facing him. "What are you doing here?" she exclaimed. "If the King finds out you're here..."

Gwaine waved the thought away like he was shooing a fly. "Bah...he's probably forgotten what I look like by now. Barking mad, kings are."

A giggle bubbled out of Gwen as she playfully tapped Gwaine's arm. "That's awful! You shouldn't say things like that!"

Leaning in as if imparting a secret, Gwaine confided, "Trust me... I've met a fair few of them, and seen many more. They're all pretty cracked, if you ask me."

"Which I wasn't," Gwen replied primly, but the amused twinkle in Gwaine's eyes made her laugh once more. "Stop it!" she protested, not really meaning it.

It was really good to see Gwaine again. She'd thought of him many times in the weeks since he'd left Camelot: wondering where he'd ended up and if he were really all right. And Gwen found, to her surprise, that she'd actually missed the charming rogue.

To cover up her sudden sense of wrong-footedness that thought brought, Gwen lifted the daisy to her nose and sniffed. It was more of an herbal, clean smell than an actual fragrance, but she loved it just the same.

"But really...what are you doing here?" Gwen insisted. "This is dangerous, no matter how much you try to pretend it isn't."

"Well, some lovely woman of my acquaintance told me she never gets flowers. I couldn't let such an injustice stand, now could I?"

Gwen shook her head and smiled helplessly. "You're such a flatterer," she teased.

"It's not flattery if it's true," Gwaine replied with a nod.

Their eyes connected, and for a long moment, neither one moved, caught in each other's gaze.

Then Gwaine nudged Gwen's basket with his knee, breaking the spell. "What's with this, then?" he asked her.

"Oh!" Gwen had almost completely forgotten about her quest. "I thought I might collect some flowers for Morgana" she said before catching herself.  "I meant the <i>Lady</i>..."

"It's okay, I knew who you meant," Gwaine interrupted before tilting his head to the side to study her inquiringly.

"What?" Gwen wanted to know.

"It's okay to be yourself. You don't have to be so prim and proper all the time, you know."

Gwen wasn't sure what to say to that, so she said nothing.

"You don't have to be afraid of them....nobles, I mean. No matter what they might want you to believe, they put their pants on the same way as the rest of us." He paused, and then added softly, "You have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, Guinevere."

Gwen could tell by the heat she felt in her face that her cheeks were flaming. To keep her hands from twisting self consciously in her lap, she started picking flowers.

Gwaine wisely said nothing more and simply assisted Gwen with her gathering. Neither of them spoke until the basket was full of fragrant blooms.

"What are you doing there?" Gwaine asked gently as he watched Gwen's fingers nimbly wind the stems of two flowers together.

"Well, we have so many flowers now that I thought I would make Morgana a ringlet," Gwen explained, pulling another stem from the basket and adding it to the fledgling chain.

"Ah, yes... I see it now," Gwaine replied, picking two daisies from behind him and twisting them in a similar fashion.

Gwen's eyes goggled as she watched the swordsman's fingers delicately twist the stems and add another. " _You_ know how to make daisy chains?" she gasped in astonishment.

Gwaine shrugged one shoulder and flipped his hair out of his eyes. "I have an older sister.  I was pressed into such a venture many a time when I was a young lad. She was as dumb as a post and half as attractive, so she <i>needed</i> the flowers, mind..."

Gwen spluttered in mortified amusement. "Gwaine!" she scolded. "That's terrible!"

"Doesn't stop it from being the truth. She was a vain, stuck up cow and I hated her." He picked another daisy from the ground near Gwen's elbow and added it to his chain.

"Where is your sister now?" Gwen asked, her fingers moving on autopilot as she studied the dashing man's face, watching the shadows of his past skitter across his features.

"Dunno," Gwaine admitted. "Haven't seen her since I left home."

"Where's home?"

Gwaine's eyes slid away, staring out over the wide horizon. "Nowhere special," he answered finally, uncharacteristically quiet.

A brief flash of pain lit Gwaine's eyes so quickly that Gwen could almost convince herself she'd imagined it...but only almost. It made Gwen wonder just how lonely Gwaine really was and when was the last time he'd truly felt loved.

Lowering her eyes respectfully, Gwen remained quiet, letting her companion work through his conflicting emotions without an audience.

A couple minutes later, Gwen felt a soft hand against her knee. Looking up, she was glad to see Gwaine's smile re-emerge. "It's all done," he said as he held it out toward her.

In his palms lay a delicate daisy wreath, yellow and white blooms alternating around the ring.

"It's....lovely." Gwen's voice faltered for a moment as she witnessed the deeply amused smirk on Gwaine's face morph into something more yearning and heart-stopping.

"For an even more lovely lady," Gwaine rasped, his voice lower and more husky than his norm. "May I?" He motioned as if to place it on Gwen's head.

Swallowing against the thick lump in her throat, Gwen nodded. Gwaine shifted himself closer until they were a hairsbreadth apart and then tucked the floral wreath onto the crown of Gwen's head.

"Perfect," Gwaine breathed. Instead of lowering his hands, he instead cradled Gwen's face in both palms, his thumbs stroking softly against her cheekbones.

His face inched closer to hers. Now, as he spoke, she could feel his warm breath on her skin like a caress. "May I?" he whispered again, but this time meaning something completely different.

Gwen's eyelids fluttered closed of their own volition, surrendering herself to the moment. Gwaine's lips first grazed her jaw, then ghosted across her cheek, and finally teased at the side of her mouth before settling against her own.

Gwaine's mouth was soft and warm, gentle and reverent as it coaxed Gwen to respond in kind. Her daisy chain slipped from her fingers as she slid them up Gwaine's chest and over his shoulders, coming to rest at the nape of his neck and grasping fistfuls of his wavy hair. Gwen felt both dizzy and so, so _alive_ as his lips brushed over hers again and again.

After what felt like forever, he pulled back just enough so their lips were no longer touching. Instead, Gwaine leaned his forehead against Gwen's, eyes still closed and breathing still hitched. Finally, he whispered mournfully, "Ah, Gwen...you are too good for the likes of me..."

Startled back to reality, Gwen pulled her head back to stare quizzically at the handsome rogue who hid such tender emotions behind a jester's masque. "Don't say that..."

He leaned back and threaded a hand through his wavy locks. "It's true," he admitted with a sigh. "You deserve so much more than I could ever give you."

Gwaine pushed himself to a stand and wiped a hand over the back of his trousers to brush away the dirt. Then he extended a hand to help Gwen to her feet.  

Gwen's hand tingled where Gwaine's fingers touched it. Awed and a little bit afraid, Gwen's eyes sought his. They were fierce with unnamed emotion, but also sad and resigned. "You are such a beautiful person, Gwen...inside and out. The person who wins your regard someday will be a very lucky man."

He let go of her hand in favor of bending over and retrieving Gwen's forgotten basket and daisy chain. Slowly, he ambled toward the treeline and Gwen fell into step beside him, too tongue-tied to speak. It wasn't until they reached the spot where Gwaine had tied off his horse that he reliquished the basket to Gwen.

"Take care of yourself."

Holding it in front of her with both hands, she nodded and asked Gwaine bashfully, "Will I ever see you again?"

Gwaine swung himself up onto his horse before replying, "Oh, I suspect you might do the next time the wind blows me in this direction." And then, with a wink and a cheeky grin, he was gone.

 

 

<><><>

 


End file.
